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Mississippi’s new pro team has announced a schedule for 2025, with opening day set for May 8 at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The Mud Monsters, yet to announce a manager or a roster, will play a 96-game schedule — 48 home dates spread over nine homestands — in the independent Frontier League, an 18-team league comprised mainly of teams in the Midwest and East Coast (plus three in Canada). The Mud Monsters’ inaugural game will be against the Florence (Ky.) Y’alls. The Mud Monsters are moving into the 5,500-seat stadium vacated by the Mississippi Braves, the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Diamond Baseball Holdings, the franchise owner, has moved the club to Columbus, Ga., presumably because of flagging attendance. (Baseball America noted that the 20-year-old Pearl ballpark needed some upgrades to meet MLB’s minor league standards.) … The Mud Monsters will be the seventh pro team to play in central Mississippi going back to 1953, when the original Jackson Senators pulled up stakes after their downtown stadium was destroyed by a tornado. Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium hosted the Mets, Generals, DiamondKats and Senators before the M-Braves arrived in Pearl in 2005. The Mud Monsters franchise is owned by Joseph Eng, an executive with Billtrust who also owns a franchise in the indy American Association. TBH Sports and Entertainment has been managing the ballpark, which is owned by Bloomfield Equities, a subsidiary of Yates Construction, which built the stadium.